A new life begins

On Sunday, August 25, 2013 I frantically drove my rental Volkswagen Jetta to the Buffalo Niagara International airport at 4am so that I could return the car, and catch my flight to New York City to begin my travel to Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.  I hastily returned the car, printed my boarding pass, checked in my baggage and meandered through the security labyrinth.  Luckily, I made my flight with time to spare, had one of the smoothest flights in my life, landed at JFK terminal two, headed downstairs, picked up my baggage, had breakfast at Starbucks (thank you Daisy) and walked next door to terminal one where I waited, and waited, and waited seven hours to catch my China Eastern flight to Shanghai, China.  That flight too was super smooth, and then, there I was, in China!

So, how does one end up in China after pursuing a teaching career in an exceptionally mismanaged inner-city school district, and signing a contract to build a new house?  Well, the answer is pretty tricky.  While working in the Buffalo public schools, some of the worst managed schools around, I decided it was time to stop renting and buy something.  If you want to know more about that adventure, visit my home blog:  ryanhomessorrento.blogspot.com  In the end, I decided working in a school that was so poorly run Horace Mann must be digging himself out of his grave, I put in my notice and went back to Gap Inc. full-time.  I have always loved working for Gap, but things being what they are, the pay kind of sucks.  In the end, I had the opportunity to teach in Suzhou, a beautiful city in Jiangsu Province, China.  I tossed and turned about the whole thing for a few months, unsure if I really should take the risk and pack my bags, or play it safe and bury myself into a life of mediocrity.  I really struggled, mediocrity being what it is, I finally decided to take the risk and see if I could do something more with my life than selling clothing. 

The whirlwind began, just after receiving a promotion to assistant manager on a Tuesday, and on Friday the news came that if I wanted the job, I needed to pack my bags.  The next day I put in my two weeks notice, and began the process.  Fortunately my house had just come under contract for sale, I had a lot of people interested in buying my furniture and car.  The following Friday I had to travel to NYC to interview (i.e. hand in the papers and invitation letter) for my visa.  I flew back to Buffalo, started packing and moving things around, and before you knew it, after two weeks of full-time work, while planning the sale of my house, car, and worldly possessions, things were coming to a close.  I worked my last shift on Saturday, said my goodbyes, purchased my last set of 50% off clothing, and went on an all night binge of cleaning, sorting, donating, and moving things.  Thanks to a wonderful aunt, we were able to mostly finish the work.  But wait, my poor cat has no home!  Three people backed out of taking my amazing feline and at 3:30am I was off to Niagara Falls to drop my poor Tigre off at my uncle's house.  At 4am, the rush to the airport began and as you read above, everything worked out fine.